“The man’s all hopped up on cactus juice.” Ah, no tequila here. Just nopal cactus fruit juice.
Nopal cactus fruit is supposed to be good for health. That’s why there are $40 bottles of nopal juice available, of what appears to me less than $3 of juice. I was a little shocked when I saw the price. And, you can get a Kosher certified bottle for another $1! For the price, why not just make all of it Kosher? Not to knock the product, but…
You can make your own nopal juice, people. It’s not complicated, but there is a specific way to do it. Go to Fiesta or another Mexican food store. They have what they call “red tuna” or “white tuna” (green), for about 5/$1 or 4/$1. These are the nopal cactus fruits. They have very hard seeds, which could possibly break your teeth. So, here’s how you get the juice out….With your knife, cut into the jacket, as I call it, covering the fruit. It’s a very thick skin. Throw the inner fruit into the blender. Just give it a quick whirl, with a touch of water as needed. Don’t leave the blender on. Then, pour through a wide-mesh strainer, which should remove all the hard seeds. You probably need to swirl it to get it through.
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- the inspiration for the blog entry
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- Nopal Fruit, a.k.a. Red Tuna or White Tuna
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- cutting into the “jacket”
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- the fruit exposed for what it is
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- straining out hard seeds
Interesting! Why do they call a cactus “tuna”? What makes it valuable enough health-wise to make it worth all the work? Doubt I can find it up here. don’t know of any Mexican food stores here.